The American Lung Association (ALA) estimates that nearly 16 million Americans suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which includes diseases such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and some types of asthma. The ALA estimated that COPD was the fourth-ranking cause of death in the U.S. The ALA estimates that about 14 million and 2 million Americans suffer from emphysema and chronic bronchitis respectively.
Those inflicted with COPD face disabilities due to the limited pulmonary functions. Usually, individuals afflicted by COPD also face loss in muscle strength and an inability to perform common daily activities. Often, those patients desiring treatment for COPD seek a physician at a point where the disease is advanced. Since the damage to the lungs is irreversible, there is little hope of recovery. Most times, the physician cannot reverse the effects of the disease but can only offer treatment and advice to halt the progression of the disease.
To understand the detrimental effects of COPD, the workings of the lungs requires a cursory discussion. The primary function of the lungs is to permit the exchange of two gasses by removing carbon dioxide from arterial blood and replacing it with oxygen. Thus, to facilitate this exchange, the lungs provide a blood gas interface. The oxygen and carbon dioxide move between the gas (air) and blood by diffusion. This diffusion is possible since the blood is delivered to one side of the blood-gas interface via small blood vessels (capillaries). The capillaries are wrapped around numerous air sacs called alveoli which function as the blood-gas interface. A typical human lung contains about 300 million alveoli.
The air is brought to the other side of this blood-gas interface by a natural respiratory airway, hereafter referred to as a natural airway or airway, consisting of branching tubes which become narrower, shorter, and more numerous as they penetrate deeper into the lung. Specifically, the airway begins with the trachea which branches into the left and right bronchi which divide into lobar, then segmental bronchi. Ultimately, the branching continues down to the terminal bronchioles which lead to the alveoli. Plates of cartilage may be found as part of the walls throughout most of the airway from the trachea to the bronchi. The cartilage plates become less prevalent as the airways branch. Eventually, in the last generations of the bronchi, the cartilage plates are found only at the branching points. The bronchi and bronchioles may be distinguished as the bronchi lie proximal to the last plate of cartilage found along the airway, while the bronchiole lies distal to the last plate of cartilage. The bronchioles are the smallest airways that do not contain alveoli. The function of the bronchi and bronchioles is to provide conducting airways that lead air to and from the gas-blood interface. However, these conducting airways do not take part in gas exchange because they do not contain alveoli. Rather, the gas exchange takes place in the alveoli which are found in the distal most end of the airways.
The mechanics of breathing include the lungs, the rib cage, the diaphragm and abdominal wall. During inspiration, inspiratory muscles contract increasing the volume of the chest cavity. As a result of the expansion of the chest cavity, the pleural pressure, the pressure within the chest cavity, becomes sub-atmospheric. Consequently, air flows into the lungs and the lungs expand. During unforced expiration, the inspiratory muscles relax and the lungs begin to recoil and reduce in size. The lungs recoil because they contain elastic fibers that allow for expansion, as the lungs inflate, and relaxation, as the lungs deflate, with each breath. This characteristic is called elastic recoil. The recoil of the lungs causes alveolar pressure to exceed atmospheric pressure causing air to flow out of the lungs and deflate the lungs. ‘If the lungs’ ability to recoil is damaged, the lungs cannot contract and reduce in size from their inflated state. As a result, the lungs cannot evacuate all of the inspired air.
In addition to elastic recoil, the lung's elastic fibers also assist in keeping small airways open during the exhalation cycle. This effect is also known as “tethering” of the airways. Tethering is desirable since small airways do not contain cartilage that would otherwise provide structural rigidity for these airways. Without tethering, and in the absence of structural rigidity, the small airways collapse during exhalation and prevent air from exiting thereby trapping air within the lung.
Emphysema is characterized by irreversible biochemical destruction of the alveolar walls that contain the elastic fibers, called elastin, described above. The destruction of the alveolar walls results in a dual problem of reduction of elastic recoil and the loss of tethering of the airways. Unfortunately for the individual suffering from emphysema, these two problems combine to result in extreme hyperinflation (air trapping) of the lung and an inability of the person to exhale. In this situation, the individual will be debilitated since the lungs are unable to perform gas exchange at a satisfactory rate.
One further aspect of alveolar wall destruction is that the airflow between neighboring air sacs, known as collateral ventilation or collateral air flow, is markedly increased as when compared to a healthy lung. While alveolar wall destruction decreases resistance to collateral ventilation, the resulting increased collateral ventilation does not benefit the individual since air is still unable to flow into and out of the lungs. Hence, because this trapped air is rich in CO2, it is of little or no benefit to the individual.
Chronic bronchitis is characterized by excessive mucus production in the bronchial tree. Usually there is a general increase in bulk (hypertrophy) of the large bronchi and chronic inflammatory changes in the small airways. Excessive amounts of mucus are found in the airways and semisolid plugs of this mucus may occlude some small bronchi. Also, the small airways are usually narrowed and show inflammatory changes.
Currently, although there is no cure for COPD, treatment includes bronchodilator drugs, and lung reduction surgery. The bronchodilator drugs relax and widen the air passages thereby reducing the residual volume and increasing gas flow permitting more oxygen to enter the lungs. Yet, bronchodilator drugs are only effective for a short period of time and require repeated application. Moreover, the bronchodilator drugs are only effective in a certain percentage of the population of those diagnosed with COPD. In some cases, patients suffering from COPD are given supplemental oxygen to assist in breathing. Unfortunately, aside from the impracticalities of needing to maintain and transport a source of oxygen for everyday activities, the oxygen is only partially functional and does not eliminate the effects of the COPD. Moreover, patients requiring a supplemental source of oxygen are usually never able to return to functioning without the oxygen.
Lung volume reduction surgery is a procedure which removes portions of the lung that are over-inflated. The portion of the lung that remains has relatively better elastic recoil, providing reduced airway obstruction. The reduced lung volume also improves the efficiency of the respiratory muscles. However, lung reduction surgery is an extremely traumatic procedure which involves opening the chest and thoracic cavity to remove a portion of the lung. As such, the procedure involves an extended recovery period. Hence, the long term benefits of this surgery are still being evaluated. In any case, it is thought that lung reduction surgery is sought in those cases of emphysema where only a portion of the lung is emphysematous as opposed to the case where the entire lung is emphysematous. In cases where the lung is only partially emphysematous, removal of a portion of emphysematous lung which was compressing healthier portions of the lung allows the healthier portions to expand, increasing the overall efficiency of the lung. If the entire lung is emphysematous, however, removal of a portion of the lung removes gas exchanging alveolar surfaces, reducing the overall efficiency of the lung. Lung volume reduction surgery is thus not a practical solution for treatment of emphysema where the entire lung is diseased.
Both bronchodilator drugs and lung reduction surgery fail to capitalize on the increased collateral ventilation taking place in the diseased lung. There remains a need for a medical procedure that can alleviate some of the problems caused by COPD. There is also a need for a medical procedure that alleviates some of the problems caused by COPD irrespective of whether a portion of the lung, or the entire lung is emphysematous. The production and maintenance of collateral openings through an airway wall allows air to pass directly out of the lung tissue responsible for gas exchange. These collateral openings serve to decompress hyper inflated lungs and/or facilitate an exchange of oxygen into the blood.
It was found that creation of collateral channels in COPD patients allowed expired air to pass out of the lungs and decompressed hyper-inflated lungs. Such methods and devices for creating and maintaining collateral channels are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/633,651, filed on Aug. 7, 2000; U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/947,144, 09/946,706, and 09/947,126 all filed on Sep. 4, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/317,338 filed on Sep. 4, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/334,642 filed on Nov. 29, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/367,436 filed on Mar. 20, 2002; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/374,022 filed on Apr. 19, 2002 each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
It was found that creating an opening/channel through an airway wall overcomes the shortcomings associated with bronchodilator drugs and lung volume reduction surgery. To further improve the benefit provided by the channel a need further remains to extend the duration of which the channel remains open (e.g., patency of the opening). Surgically creating a hole in tissue triggers a healing cascade. The body's natural healing response sets into motion, amongst other things, cell proliferation which can result in a build-up of scar tissue. This tissue overgrowth can occlude or otherwise close the surgically created opening. Additionally, in the event an implant is deployed in the surgically created opening to maintain the patency of the opening, the implant may become encapsulated or filled with tissue thereby occluding the channel.
Drug eluting coronary-type stents are not known to overcome the above mentioned events because these stents are often substantially cylindrical (or otherwise have a shape that conforms to the shape of a tubular blood vessel). Hence, they may slide and eject from surgically created openings in an airway wall leading to rapid closure of any channel. Additionally, the design and structure of the coronary-type stents reflect the fact that these stents operate in an environment that contains different tissues when compared to the airways not to mention an environment where there is a constant flow of blood against the stent. Moreover, the design of coronary stents also acknowledges the need to avoid partial re-stenosis of the vessel after stent placement. In view of the above, implants suited for placement in the coronary are often designed to account for factors that may be insignificant when considering a device for the airways.
Not surprisingly, experiments in animal models found that placement of a paclitaxel drug eluting vascular stent into the opening did not yield positive results in maintaining the patency of the opening. The shortcomings were both in the physical structure of the stent along with the failure to control the healing cascade caused by creation of the channel.
An understanding of the distinctions between the healing response in the coronary versus the airways may explain this outcome. For purposes of our discussion, the healing response in both the coronary and the lungs may be divided into approximately four stages as measured relative to the time of the injury: 1) acute phase; 2) sub-chronic phase; 3) chronic phase; and 4) late phase.
In the coronary, after trauma caused by the placement of a coronary stent, the healing process begins in the acute phase with thrombus and acute inflammation. During the sub-chronic phase, there is an organization of the thrombus, an acute/chronic inflammation and early neointima hyperplasia. In the following chronic phase, there is a proliferation of smooth muscle cells along with chronic inflammation and adventitial thickening. In the late stage of the healing process there is chronic inflammation, neointimal remodeling, medial hypertrophy and adventitial thickening. Based upon the observations in a rabbit model, the healing response in the airway begins with a fibrinous clot, edema hemorrhage, and fibrin deposition. In the sub-chronic phase there is re-epithelialization, mucosal hypertrophy, squamous metaplasia, fibroplasias and fibrosus. In the chronic phase, while the epithelium is intact and there is less mucosal hypertrophy, there is still fibroplasia and fibrosis. In the late stage the respiratory epithelium is intact and there is evidence of a scar.
In view of the above, a need remains to create channels in airways of COPD patients. A need also remains for methods and devices for creating the channels and placing conduits therein such that the patency of the opening is extended.